Archive for February, 2005

For better or worse, I only catch up on my W3 reading every month or so. That said, here’s the stuff that caught my eye recently:

• Call for Participation: W3C Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services
• Working Draft: Glossary of Terms for Device Independence
• W3C Launches Voice Browser Activity
• ‘Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One’ is a W3C Recommendation

The government is setting up a special monitoring board to keep checking on medicines once they’re on the market, responding to complaints that officials reacted too slowly to reports linking prescription painkillers to heart attack and stroke.

I suppose it might not be fair criticism [1], but I can’t help but make two exclamations when I read the above paragraph (from this AP article today). First, isn’t this their job? Isn’t the FDA already supposed to monitor medicines and safety? Second, this sounds a lot like Big Government. Do we really need another group to do the job of an existing one? Boy, the radical right sure walk a different game than they talk.

[1] Not that “fair” is a threshold the radical right inspires.

“There is a speed war on the web. Browsers compete on many fronts; security, standards support, features and speed. Most people are aware of which major browser fails on three of these, but one of them is still open for grabs. Speed.”

On Thursday night, Aimee invited a bunch of her friends over for dinner. The dinner was multi-purpose: celebrating her that-day completion of the last application to grad school; a housewarming party for her friends who hadn’t seen our home; and a going away party, as she’s leaving Monday night for about a month in South East Asia.

13 photos in Flickr set

No, this isn’t an Onion headline. That’s my brother’s gig. This is actually a very sad story: Farmers Shaken by Bush’s Subsidy Plan (AP).

In many farm states that helped re-elect Bush in November after never hearing any campaign talk about cutting their payments, there is a sense of betrayal. “I’m not happy. I voted for George Bush,” said cotton grower John Rife of Ferriday, La. (emphasis mine)

The Radical Right thrives on the support of “normal American’s”, yet year after year, cycle after cycle, election after election , they leave them high and dry. Where’s the values in that?

Why do people elect leaders the are predictably against their best interests? Read the best book of 2004 to find out:

Semantic Data Extractor

As Kevin Ryan pointed out at work yesterday, the W3’s Semantic Data Extractor is a pretty sweet tool. I’ve been steadily promoting Layered Semantic Markup at work — the importance of meaningful markup as the core of web development. This is a great tool to show that value, and remind that the reason you put meaning in is to get meaning out.

The tool tries to extract information from a semantically-rich HTML document. It only uses information available through the good usage of the semantics provided by HTML. “The aim is to show that providing semantically rich HTML gives much more value to your code: using semantically rich HTML allows a better use of CSS, and makes your HTML intelligible to a wider range of user agents (especially search engines bots).”

To see it in action, check out the new next.yahoo.com page. The Extractor handles it pretty well, showing a clear document hierarchy.

What is Layered Semantic Markup?

Today’s Wrong Solution is Tomorrow’s Constraint

Layered Semantic Markup (LSM) is not a technology, but a framework comprised of HTML, XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Javascript, DOM and other Web technologies. LSM allows for appropriately implemented principles and standards.

LSM is a development framework for creating Web documents and experiences. LSM builds for the least capable devices first, then enhances those documents with separate logic for presentation, in ways that do not place an undue burden on baseline devices but which allow a richer experience for those users with modern graphical browser software. LSM supports all user agents, and is inclusive by design. (Progressive Enhancement - Unobtrusive Javascript)

LSM has structural semantic markup at its core, which provides lean, meaningful, accessible pages. This well-built core and the clear separation of structural, presentational and behavioral layers make this development philosophy superior to many short-sighted approaches.

Today’s wrong solution is tomorrow’s constraint. A holistic vision - an underlying philosophy - must guide technical decisions. LSM provides the strategy for a sound and future-ready approach.

LSM embraces Graded Browser Support by using one markup document, subsequently layered with stylesheets and scripts that provide a gradually enhanced experience across a wide variety of browsers and devices.

This approach has profound advantages over other browser support approaches such as graceful degradation. Graded Browser Support recognizes that advanced technology support is not a guarantee of the future, and that legacy software as well as alternative devices (mobile) must always be considered. Graded Browser Support defines support in terms of current capabilities, not in terms of legacy or obsolete software; it embraces accessibility, universality, and peaceful coexistence with more feature-rich browsers/devices; and it allows for adoption of new technology and strategies without leaving any browser/device behind.

Credits

This work is heavily influenced and contains directly passages from Debra Chamra’s “Progressive Enhancement: Paving the Way for Future Web Design“, Steven Champeon and Nick Finck’s presentation “Inclusive Web Design For the Future with Progressive Enhancement“, and Steven Champeon’s “Progressive Enhancement and the Future of Web Design“, all of which may be found here.

Thanks also to the great people who have endlessly debated and developed these topics with me: James Berry, Sean Imler, Todd Kloots, Jon Koshi, Mike Lee, Thomas Sha, Matt Sweeney, Chanel Wheeler, and Christina Wodtke; and everybody else; and to everybody who puts their ideas online so that others may be inspired. Thanks.